Bratya urges TET candidates to withdraw stir, promises justice

The state is sympathetic towards their issue, the minister said.The successful candidates of TET 2014 and 2016 who were unfairly deprived will be given priority, and the government was determined to ensure that there is no discrimination, he said.The 5,261 posts, comprising teaching and non-teaching staff, will be filled up as per the required teacher-student ratio in the schools, he added.West Bengal Board of Primary Education president Goutam Paul said the next TET exam will be held on December 11 to fill up around 11,000 vacant posts.

West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu on Tuesday urged the agitating Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) candidates to withdraw their stir, assuring that the state government will address their grievances.

Addressing a press conference, Basu said the government will fill up 5,261 posts in state-run and state-aided primary schools in a free, fair and transparent manner.

''The process has already started and my request to the protesting TET candidates, who have been on the road for so many months, to call off their agitation. The state is sympathetic towards their issue,'' the minister said.

The successful candidates of TET 2014 and 2016 who were unfairly deprived will be given priority, and the government was determined to ensure that there is no discrimination, he said.

The 5,261 posts, comprising teaching and non-teaching staff, will be filled up as per the required teacher-student ratio in the schools, he added.

West Bengal Board of Primary Education president Goutam Paul said the next TET exam will be held on December 11 to fill up around 11,000 vacant posts. He said that TET will be held every year going forward.

Thousands of TET candidates, who cleared the 2014 and 2016 exams, have been protesting over not getting their appointments. Around 200 of them are staging a sit-in near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Kolkata's Maidan area for the last 520 days. The opposition BJP said that the state government has lost its credibility among the job seekers.

''The state government had deprived thousands of qualified TET candidates, and recruited many incompetent ones. The court-monitored probe brought the matter to light. BJP wants the government to take every step necessary to recruit only eligible candidates,'' the party's spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said.

The CPI(M) said the government was only acting after the high court intervened and found several anomalies in TET and School Service Commission (SSC) recruitments. ''Now, the minister has no other option but to ensure justice for all these left-out deserving candidates,'' CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said.

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